Busy night for SpecOps; Thwarted raid in Somalia?; US warship sails past another fake island; and just a bit more.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia—it was a day (and night) of raids for U.S. special forces across the globe. We begin in the Gayan district of Pakitka province, on Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan, where a joint U.S.-Afghan raid rescued Ali Haider Gilani, the son of Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani from three years in Taliban captivity, the Associated Press reports. The younger Gilani is reportedly being held at Bagram air base, with plans to send him to Pakistan “in a few hours,” the BBC reports. A U.S. statement added four militants were killed in the attack. Read the statement in full, via the Washington Post’s Erin Cunningham, here.

ICYMI: Afghan special forces freed 60 prisoners from a compound in southern Helmand province late last week. That, here.

But the Taliban are still overrunning Afghan military checkpoints in Helmand and killing more than a dozen troops along the way. “The attack on checkpoints in Gereshk, on the main highway through Helmand, a few kilometers to the north of the governor’s compound in Lashkar Gah, and Nad Ali, to the west of the town, underlined the growing pressure on security forces clinging on in the southern province,” Reuters reports from nearby Lashkar Gah.

Be afraid, the Taliban says: We have “thousands of fully armed martyrdom seekers,” The Long War Journal reports off a statement from the group posted Sunday. “While [Taliban spokesman Zabihullah] Mujahid’s claim that the Taliban has ‘thousands of martyrdom seekers’ may be seen as boastful, the groups has conducted numerous attacks against Afghan and Coalition facilities using multiple suicide bombers and armed fighters over the past decade. The Taliban possesses the infrastructure to recruit, indoctrinate, train and deploy these suicide assault teams throughout Afghanistan.”

The Taliban also claims it shot down a U.S. drone, possibly somewhere over Nangarhar province, on the border with Pakistan, the Washington Post reports. The U.S. so far has confirmed it lost contact “with a remotely piloted aircraft,” but haven’t publicly explained why just yet.

Also on Tuesday, the Post adds, “officials in the country’s northeastern Kunduz province reported that a U.S. drone killed 12 Taliban fighters, including one of the insurgent group’s senior commanders. That attack took place Monday in the province’s Chahar Dara district, which the Afghan army won back after a bloody battle in April, an official with the Kunduz police said. NATO officials did not immediately confirm that the drone strike took place.” More here.

Osama bin Laden’s boy just can’t give up his daddy’s game. LWJ reports that al-Qaeda’s As Sahab propaganda arm released an audio message from OBL’s son, Hamzah. His message concerned the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—its title was “Jerusalem Is But a Bride, Its Dowry Is Our Blood”—and how fighting in Syria can help lead jihadists in the fight against Israel. That over here, and via The Jerusalem Post, here.

Al-Shebab’s media wing claims it thwarted a U.S. raid in the southern Somali town of Toratorow. The fighting reportedly began at around 3 a.m. local and featured two helicopters, but detail from the alleged raid is scant so far this morning.

In Iraq, the Islamic State’s “military emir” for Anbar province was killed in a U.S. airstrike four days ago in Rutbah, near the Jordanian border, The Wall Street Journal reported. The emir’s name: Abu Wahib, “the notorious Islamic State military commander who was responsible for overrunning much of Anbar province in 2014,” LWJ adds. More on Wahib’s history and background, here.

Turkey’s special forces even got in the raid business this weekend in Syria, WSJ’s Dion Nissenbaum reports from Istanbul. Adds Kurdish Rudaw news: “The Turkish daily Yeni Safak reported on Sunday that 15-20 Turkish soldiers entered Syria on Saturday and attacked ISIS positions after 10 days of preparation and intelligence gathering. No official statement has been made by the Turkish military,” which is also what Nissembaum reports now two days later.

“If the news is confirmed,” Rudaw notes, “Saturday’s raid would be the first Turkish ground incursion against ISIS into Syria, and the second non-ISIS related incursion. In February 2015, 572 Turkish soldiers backed by tanks and armored vehicles briefly entered Syrian territory to evacuate the Tomb of Suleyman Shah, which was located in a Turkish exclave in Syria that they feared would be destroyed by ISIS.” More here.

Here’s the latest read on ISIS and its global affiliates—size, location, distribution and more—via the WSJ graphics team.

Charted: The Syrian ceasefire’s effect on killing, via The Economist. (Spoiler: There has been virtually no effect.)

Video: What it’s like to save a life in Syria. Feel just a little bit better this morning after watching Syria’s “White Hats” pull a man from rubble after a Syrian allied airstrike.

And in a bit of conflicted good news from the Syrian war, activists are helping refugees squat in 3-star hotel in Greece—just one of many abandoned buildings in the city amid the country’s economic turmoil. No surprise, but not everyone’s happy about it. Public Radio International reports on location, here.


From Defense One

Keep it secret: Congress should back off the B-21 program. AEI’s Mackenzie Eaglen argues that lawmakers’ calls for more transparency and fixed-price contracts will only hurt an Air Force acquisition effort that is doing well so far. Read her reasoning, here.

Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The D Brief, by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. On this day in 1960, USS Triton departed on the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth. Send your friends this link: http://get.defenseone.com/d-brief/. And let us know your news: the-d-brief@defenseone.com.


U.S. Navy sends a warship — third one this year — sailing past China’s fake islands. “Daniel R. Russel, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told journalists in Hanoi that the operations ‘are not provocations. They are good global citizenship,’”  reports Wall Street Journal’s Gordon Lubold. “‘If the world’s most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships, the navy, of a smaller country?’ said Mr. Russel, who earlier met with Vietnamese officials in preparation for a visit by President Barack Obama in two weeks.”

China, which built most of the 700-acre island and all 10,000 feet of its runway, said: “‘The U.S. is flexing military muscles in the South China Sea and sending military vessels and ships into waters and airspace near’ Chinese islands, he said. ‘That is the real threat to peace and stability as well as freedom of overflight and navigation in the South China Sea.’”

WSJ has a good map of the area, and here’s an aerial shot of Fiery Cross via @jimsciutto.

Meanwhile: just how does the Navy decide what ships and aircraft to buy? Defense News’ Chris Cavas explains the interlocking studies and reports that will feed into the 2018 budget and the next update of the service’s 30-year plan. Read it, here.

Jordan to get American antitank missiles. The Pentagon has signed an agreement with Amman, a critical partner in the fight against ISIS, for TOW missiles, Raytheon announced this morning.  The firm touts its TOW as “the premier long-range, heavy assault-precision anti-armor, anti-fortification and anti-amphibious landing weapon system used throughout the world today.”

Lockheed, Raytheon get laser-guided bomb contracts. The five-year deals for the Paveway II bombs are worth a combined $650 million. The munitions have been commonly used by the U.S. and allies to strike ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria.

U.K. to ink deal for Boeing submarine-hunting planes this summer. That’s what British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced last night after checking out U.S. Navy P-8s in Jacksonville, Florida. “This new fleet of maritime patrol aircraft will help to protect our nuclear submarines and I intend to begin ordering them this summer,” Fallon said. The U.K. announced late last year that it wanted to buy nine P-8s, which are heavily modified Boeing 737 jetliners. “We can make this investment because we are increasing defense spending every year of this decade,” Fallon said.

Watch 71 Russian aircraft fly over Moscow to commemorate Victory Day, The Aviationist reports. “The air parade included most of the Russian ‘hardware’ that took part in the Air War over Syria, including the Tu-95 Bear, Tu-22M3 Backfire and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers and the Su-34 Fullback ‘multidimensional’ fighters. The flypast also featured the Il-76 and AN-124 airlifters, the Russian MiG-29SMT fighter jets, the ‘Kubinka diamond’ made of MiG-29s of the Strizhi (Swifts) and Su-27s of the Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights) as well as Mi-28Ns, Mi-35s and Ka-52 combat helicopters flying over the monument of Minin and Pozharsky at Red Square in Moscow.” All that, here.

A bit higher above the earth, the U.S. military is covering its assets in space. That’s to say it’s working on “ways to protect exposed satellites floating in orbit” by possibly sending “swarms of small satellites into orbit that are much more difficult to target,” WaPo reported Monday.

Why? “National security officials are not only concerned that missiles could take out their satellites but also that a craft's equipment could be easily jammed. Potential enemies could "dazzle" sensors, temporarily blinding them, or deploy tiny "parasitic satellites" that attach to host satellites and do their worst. That could lead to soldiers stranded on the battlefield with little means of communication or missiles that would not be able to find their targets.”

The USMC is sending its first females to the infantry, Marine Corps Times reported Monday. “The Marine Corps has approved requests by two women to move into infantry military occupational specialties. One woman has been approved to become a rifleman and another to become a machine gunner,” a Marine spokesman said.

“The Marine Corps is not yet releasing the women’s names or what unit they will be joining, he said. The service’s gender integration plan requires that the two female officers or staff noncommissioned be assigned to the unit 90 prior to any women joining them.” More here.

U.S. troops prefer Trump to Clinton by more than a 2-1 margin, Military Times reported Monday. “However, in the latest Military Times election survey, more than one in five troops said they’d rather not vote in November if they have to choose between just those two candidates.” That here.

Finally: In light of today’s flurry of special forces raids, it’s worth considering—at least for the sake of a healthy debate—”Are the Special Forces Stretched Too Thin?” That’s the question put forward over at Popular Mechanics. The query largely hinges on an interview with the widow of Delta Force member Josh Wheeler, but it’s still worth the click. Find it here.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.